USMC WWII Qualification Card

[Sven]

I was looking at copies of my dad's Marine Corps enlistment, Qualification Card and Report of Separation tonight and sent scans of them to my nephew who is doing a report for school on his Grandpa (my dad). I have a couple of questions I wonder if some of you might know the answer to.

When he qualified with his M-1, they list course "A", Qualified "MKS" and Score of 284. I'm wondering what course A is, is MKS marksman? -- as compared to expert or ??? And is his score of 284 our of 300 possible? What score was required to make Expert -- 285?

Also under Duty Desired his first choice was "FMF (Sniper)" and second choice was ORD -- also on that second line was FMF 038. So I'm also wondering what FMF and FMF 038 stands for. I'm assuming ORD stands for ordnance.

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[Muley Gil]

FMF-Fleet Marine Force

 

[-db-]

It's likely 038 was code for an infantry billet of some kind back then. Nowadays, MOS codes are 4-digit numbers, with the 03 prefix designating infantry jobs (0311 - rifleman, 0331 - machine gunner, etc.).

ORD was likely ordnance. MKS would be Marksman but as for the scoring, they've changed it so much over the years it's difficult to pin down what the scoring range would have been. For example, the story goes that Carlos Hathcock set a record on an "A course" where the highest possible score was 250 at the time. Obviously, this isn't the same "A course" your father shot with a score of 284.

 

[Sven]

Thanks, guys. I'll pass that on to my nephew.